The alpha and omega of every game you play at online casinos should be safety. And not just the kind that comes from the casino's side – their fairness, adherence to terms and conditions, and the security of games and websites – but also the kind that comes from your side. In the lines below, we'll look at seven rules of safe play at online casinos, which will briefly introduce you to the specific points you should pay attention to when playing at a casino.
The first step before playing at any casino should be to verify that casino. We have an article on our website about how to recognize a safe casino, which can guide you through a basic quick check of an online casino.
The absolute foundation that every casino must meet is holding a license. If the casino you want to play at has no information about its license on its website or anywhere else, be alert! If casino staff can't provide you with this information via live chat, email, or any other support channel, leave that casino. You shouldn't consider registering at such a casino for even a second, let alone playing or depositing funds.
However, also remember that not all licenses are equal. While some are recognized in most countries of the world and are known for their regular and strict oversight, other licenses are known for how easy and cheap they are to obtain. Such licenses may not fully serve their purpose, and you need to check the casino from multiple angles – reviews, the company owning the casino, other casinos in that company's portfolio, and so on.
Before you start playing at a casino, remind yourself how the entire platform and games within it work. Realize again that a casino is a platform offering entertainment, games and a way to relax, not a platform offering quick enrichment. You should never, absolutely never, go to an online casino with the goal of winning or making money – that's not how it works.
Similarly, for your safety, it's important that you remind yourself and understand that casino games are not about luck. So before you play, remind yourself how casino games work. They are a matter of chance, or rather a random number generator, and mathematics – not your well-thought-out strategy, myths about how to win, or luck that you might feel you have. Also remember that all casino games are set up so that the casino has a mathematical advantage over your bet.
In a world where one online casino tries to outdo another, it's easy to believe the marketing tricks these platforms prepare for players. In the wide selection of casinos, you'll simply find a welcome bonus more interesting than the one you saw just a moment ago somewhere else.
It's therefore important that you understand this is marketing. Casinos are not actually offering you anything for free, even though it might seem that way based on the dazzling banners announcing bonus money and free spins.
The truth is that every bonus has its conditions for redemption. And it's true that in these conditions you'll always find mention of playthrough requirements, wagering, and other actions you must take with your own money and bonus money before the casino releases even part of your bonus. If you don't understand these conditions well and succumb to the marketing pressure of some online casino, then it can easily happen that you end up with no money – neither your own nor the bonus.
Bankroll is a term you might hear fairly often in connection with gambling. It's capital that you set aside for a specific purpose – in our case, for playing.
This is a very important step that you should never skip when playing. It's important that you always have a specific amount of money set aside for your play that won't interfere with your normal functioning in any way, won't affect important items in your budget, not even in next month's budget, and will serve only for gaming purposes.
Setting this amount is important so that you always have control over how much you can lose in play and how much you've already deposited and lost. With a specific budget, you can be sure that you're not exceeding your limits and not depositing more into games than you'd like to and should.
It might seem obvious, but in the heat of the moment it's very easy to get caught up and lured by various features and then bet and place larger volumes of bets than you originally planned.
It's similar with time – you should always have a designated time for playing that you shouldn't exceed. In today's world, where you have literally thousands of online casinos and gambling platforms in your pocket offering hundreds of thousands of different games and titles combined, it's really easy to get carried away. And not just from a financial perspective, but, and primarily, from a time perspective.
You promise yourself you'll just try it once or twice and suddenly another hour is gone. With each passing moment spent playing, you become more and more immersed, and then the whole game becomes harder to end and you can quickly get into an unpleasant vicious circle. You should therefore always set a time for how long you'll play at a given online casino or in a given game, and you shouldn't exceed that time if possible.
Under no circumstances should you visit a brick-and-mortar or online casino while under the influence of addictive substances or emotions.
Emotions like anger from a loss, euphoria from a win, stress from everyday life, or boredom significantly reduce your ability to make rational decisions. And they'll simply lead you to behave in ways you'd never allow yourself to do with a clear head and in a calm state. Addictive substances like alcohol and others further deepen this entire effect. They undermine your self-control, increase your willingness to take risks, and completely shift the boundaries of what you're willing to risk in terms of money and time.
Whatever you're under the influence of, it affects every decision you make in the casino or directly in a game. And like it or not, the fact is that in casinos we often make more important decisions than we might realize at that moment.
Under the influence of emotions or substances, you can easily find yourself in a situation where you break your own limits – for example, by recklessly increasing your bet or continuing to play even when you know it would be better to stop.
Playing under the influence of strong emotions or addictive substances is among the most dangerous situations you can find yourself in as an online casino player. Remember that you should always be at the casino with a clear head without exception.
Despite following all sorts of rules, conditions and limits, it can still happen that you find yourself in a situation you would have seriously doubted could happen to you – on the edge of addiction. It's a risk that simply anyone who moves among gambling games and casinos is exposed to.
It takes just a few decisions that aren't necessarily bad in themselves, just a few small things, and you're standing somewhere you definitely didn't want to be.
To not only avoid these situations but also know how to resolve them in time, it's necessary that you keep an eye on yourself. And also that you know – only those who can recognize early signs of dangerous play can also intervene in time.
Basic signs of dangerous play include, for example, playing to chase losses – a compulsive urge to win back everything you lost and "get back to zero". It also includes increasing bets without any clear reason. Be alert even when you start extending your gaming time without a clear reason, especially if it comes at the expense of other activities. Once you feel the need to hide your play from those around you or feel that this is no longer about entertainment but about a sense of obligation, frustration, or tension, that's a sufficient signal to take a break.
Ignoring these signals can simply lead to an escalation of problems that can easily spill over into your personal life. Frustration from play can affect your relationships, finances, and mental well-being.
The best prevention against exceeding safe gambling limits is to set some limits of your own in the first place. As we said above, these are primarily financial and time limits that you should always have set, keep in mind, and not exceed. However, you don't have to set such limits yourself, imaginarily – you can use responsible gambling tools for this.
Responsible gambling tools are available to you at all Czech and some foreign online casinos. They're your opportunity to set deposit limits, bet limits, winnings and loss limits, mandatory breaks from play, and other things that will help you keep a cool head and enjoy play as a form of entertainment, not as something that's starting to suffocate you.
If you still find yourself on the edge of addiction, don't panic. In situations where you feel you're losing control of your play, don't hesitate to use the stronger tools that online casinos offer you.
These include, for example, temporary breaks or even self-exclusion. A temporary break will block access to your account for a pre-set period. During this period, you won't be able to play or deposit money into your gaming account. Self-exclusion then represents a longer-term or permanent solution – in these cases your account is deactivated for months or years. You can also request to be registered in what's called the RVO, or registry of excluded persons. Once registered in this registry, no casino will allow you to legally play there.
This is in no way a matter of shame, failure, or disappointment. Gambling games are systemically set up to attract and entertain us, so it's no wonder they're addictive. If you notice any signs of dangerous play in yourself, at the moment when you start going late because of play, lying, or for example borrowing a certain amount of money to cash out of play, don't hesitate to seek help.